UNIMA STUDENTS IN JAMAICA FOR YOUTHMAPPERS SUMMIT
Two university Malawi students, Davie Nthiya and Mphatso Ben from the Geography, Earth Sciences and Environment Department were selected to participate in the 2023 YouthMappers Leadership Summit as fellows from 4th to 12th January, 2023. They were among 67 students selected from 26 countries across 49 academic institutions.
YouthMappers is a USAID-funded international network of university-student-led chapters. It enhances digital literacy and builds Geographical Information Systems (GIS) skills for development and humanitarian work by capitalising on web-based open geospatial technologies. It enhances professional development by nurturing technical skills and fostering leadership abilities through leadership and research fellowships, funded fieldwork programs and allowing students to participate in projects led by USAID and its implementing partners. The University of Malawi YouthMappers Chapter, established in 2016, is one of the 345 chapters in the network.
The students were selected under the summit themes of Mapping for Climate Resilience, Activating Youth Leadership and Promoting Equity and Inclusion. The 10-day summit was held at Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In their thematic groups, fellows participated in sessions led by subject matter experts. This gave them the opportunity to take part in in-depth conversations about how open mapping can be used to highlight issues associated with their respective themes. The students interacted with fellows from their regions and learned about the development priorities of USAID missions in their regions. The regions represented were the Americas, West Africa, Asia, and East and Southern Africa.
Divided into technology clusters based on their technical abilities, the students attended sessions that provided them with knowledge, skills and capacity training in open mapping techniques. Mapping with OpenStreetMap, projected management with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Tasking (HOT) Manager, mapping with artificial intelligence and machine learning, remote sensing, and QGIS were some of the topics discussed in technology-centred sessions. The fellows participated in field mapping activities that introduced them to drone technology and attribute field data creation using KoboCollect, an open-source data collection tool.
Also present at the summit serving as navigators and instructors were UNIMA and YouthMappers alumni, Zola Manyungwa and Ndapile Mkuwu, who previously served as YouthMappers leadership fellows in 2017 and 2019 respectively. They continue to contribute to the network and have recently contributed to two chapters of the recently published YouthMappers open-source book under Springer. A copy of the book can be accessed online https://bit.ly/3UorsXl.
Prior to the summit, YouthMappers held a workshop at the University of Malawi in September 2022. In attendance were students from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), University of Malawi (UNIMA), Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), University of Pretoria, University of Limpopo and Mzuzu University. The UNIMA YouthMappers were also part of the Bicycle for Growth (BFG) project implemented by World Bicycle Relief (WBR) with USAID support in April 2022.
UNIMA YouthMappers chapter is the most active and successful YouthMappers chapter in Malawi. The students are making a difference in their community, one map at a time.
